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2009 News
January-March | April-June | July-September | October-December
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August 28, 2009
New Mathematical Geoscience Chapter Formed
Chapter president Ian Crocker and chairperson Dr. Ute Herzfeld have announced the inception of a newly formed International Association for Mathematical Geosciences (IAMG) student chapter at the University of Colorado at Boulder. [ source: News & Events ] |
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August 18, 2009
Scientists, Volunteers To Assess Water Quality Throughout Rocky Mountain National Park
Rocky Mountain National Park will turn into a giant natural laboratory Aug. 19 when researchers and scores of volunteers trek to over 200 sites throughout the park to sample water in a comprehensive project coordinated by the University of Colorado at Boulder. [ source: News & Events ] |
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August 4, 2009
Power Plants Help Scientists Track Urban Pollution—From Space
In a strange twist, polluting power plants in the West are actually helping advance air quality research. A new study used the large pollution plumes from rural Western power plants to understand satellite measurements of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution over urban areas. [ source: News & Events ] |
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July 30, 2009
Renewable Energy Grant Funds Study of Turbines, Turbulence
The University of Colorado at Boulder's Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute has awarded a CIRES scientists Yelena Pichugina and Michael Hardesty seed grant funding to conduct wind turbine experiments that could help wind farms become more efficient and reliable. [ source: News & Events ] |
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July 20, 2009
Future Of Western Water Supply Threatened By Climate Change
As the West warms, a drier Colorado River system could see as much as a one-in-two chance of fully depleting all of its reservoir storage by mid-century assuming current management practices continue on course, according to a new study. Researchers looked at the effects of a range of reductions in Colorado River stream flow on future reservoir levels and the implications of different management strategies. [ source: News & Events ] |
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July 15, 2009
New Study Finds Tsunami "Shadow" Visible from Space
For the first time, scientists have demonstrated that tsunamis in the open ocean can change sea surface texture in a way that can be measured by satellite-borne radars. The finding could one day help save lives through improved detection and forecasting of tsunami intensity and direction at the ocean surface. [ source: News & Events ] |
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Notable & Quotable
August 21, 2009
Geoengineering and Global Warming
An article in Time magazine says a growing number of researcher are considering a "Plan B" to slow climate change: manipulating global processes to directly cool the planet. Theories include spraying seawater mist in low-lying clouds and spreading sulphur particles from airplanes to thicken the air, both plans that intend to reflect more sunlight. But CIRES Fellow Susan Solomon warns against such techniques in an article in Science, saying too much emphasis on mitigating warming could adversely effect other components in the complex global climate system. Read more at Time.com.
August 18, 2009
CIRES researchers partner with the Center for Research and Education in Wind
A fresh breeze powers innovation thanks to a new partnership dedicated to improving wind energy systems. CIRES researchers Florence Bocquet, John Cassano, Rod Frehlich, and Suzanne van Drunick are working with the Center for Research and Education in Wind (CREW), an interdisciplinary organization focused on establishing efficient and reliable wind energy infrastructure and technologies. They bring their expertise in atmospheric measurements, ecological sciences and numerical weather prediction to the CREW effort. Their work with CREW will contribute to a sort of one-stop shop for resources in research, education and wind energy regulation. Visit the Web site to learn more about CREW, the newest addition to the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory, and the role of its six partner institutes, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado State University, Colorado School of Mines, NOAA and NCAR.
July 17, 2009
Busy intersection at the edge of the Earth
The Norweigian-U.S. science team traversing East Antarctica didn't expect to met anyone else on the trip, let alone three other caravans in one day. "I don't know where you can go in order to be on the edge of the Earth anymore," said Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Scambos and the rest of the researchers are the human element of a state-of-the-art Norweigian traverse system. "It's the best in the world right now in terms of supporting a science crew over long distances," Scambos said. The mission's goal is to begin to fill in the past 1000 years of the region's climate history. And along the way, they've set instruments deep in the ice to chart surface temperature changes in the future. Read more about the expedition at SpaceRef.com.
July 8, 2009
G8 heading down wrong road on climate?
Climate has been a hot topic at this week's G8 summit, a meeting of the world's eight leading industrialized nations. Also released this week is a paper by an international collection of academics, including Roger Pielke Jr. of CIRES' Center for Technology and Policy Research, that says the G8 leaders are headed down the wrong road. The report — from the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society at the University of Oxford — advocates policies that directly promote energy efficiency and decarbonization instead of the complicated carbon markets the G8 has agreed to pursue. Pielke and the others believe the carbon markets are not guaranteed to work as they are intended. Read more on the Great Beyond blog at Nature.com.
July 6, 2009
Marine Mammal Experts Fear for Arctic
Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, says that the loss of Arctic summer sea ice cover by 2030 is a "reasonable expectation." Marine mammal experts say losing that sea ice habitat has negative impacts on hunting, breeding, and stability of the food chain for walrus, polar bears and ice ice seals.
A decision on the endangered status of the polar bear is due in a matter of weeks from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Read more in The Globe and Mail.
July 1, 2009
Melting Undermines Greenland Camp
Since 2004, tents at the Swiss Camp on the Greenland ice sheet have gone from half-buried in snow to precariously exposed. The camp, home of CIRES Director Konrad Steffen's research facility, will need to be moved. As Steffen explained to the New York Times' Andrew Revkin, the past five summers have melted more snow than the accompanying winters have accumulated. Read more on Revkin's blog, Dot Earth.
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